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Experience

Stephanie Carmela Batsakis Brenker has a broad civil practice, practising in commercial law, public law and tort .

Before coming to the Bar, Stephanie was an Associate to the Hon Justice M M Gordon AC at the High Court of Australia.

Stephanie also practised in London and Tokyo as a solicitor in commercial litigation and arbitration: first, as a graduate solicitor at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP and then as an associate in general commercial, and banking and finance, litigation at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford, where she attended on an Allan Myers QC Scholarship. She also holds two first class honours degrees from the University of Melbourne: an undergraduate degree in Arts, which she attended as a Melbourne National Scholar, and a Juris Doctor degree in Law, where she was awarded the Joan Rosanove QC Memorial Prize.

Stephanie read with Meg O’Sullivan KC and her senior mentor was Rowena Orr KC.

Selected cases:

Class actions (commercial and common law)

• Southernwood v Brambles Limited, Federal Court of Australia, 2022 (acting for respondent in five-week trial of shareholder class action) (led by M Borsky KC and K Loxley).
  • Southernwood v Brambles Limited (No 2) [2022] FCA 973
  • Southernwood v Brambles Limited (Ruling No 1) [2022] FCA 1036
  • Southernwood v Brambles (Ruling No 2) [2022] FCA 1027
    
• Agnello v Heritage Care Pty Ltd; Fotiadis v St Basil's Homes for the Aged [2021] VSC 838 (successfully defended strike-out applications in class actions acting on behalf of plaintiffs against aged care facilities) (led by A Broadfoot KC).
  
• Yasmin v Commonwealth, Federal Court of Australia, ongoing (acting for Indonesian youth in class action alleging negligence, false imprisonment and breach of Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) due to age assessments based on wrist x-ray analysis) (led by A Strahan KC, P Tierney and T Jeffrie).
  
• Sharma v Minister for the Environment [2021] FCA 560; Sharma v Minister for the Environment (No 2) [2021] FCA 774 (class action on behalf of Australian children, successfully arguing at first instance that Minister owed a duty of care to avoid causing harm to Australian children from climate change by the exercise of her statutory powers). Reversed on appeal: Minister for the Environment v Sharma [2022] FCAFC 35 (led by N Hutley SC, E Nekvapil and K Brazenor, with N Petrie).
  

Commercial (other)

• Citius Property Pty Ltd v Logos Australia Group Pty Ltd [2022] VSC 656 (acting for successful defendant in ten-day trial of breach of contract claim) (led by A Strahan KC).
  
• Ford v Commissioner of Taxation, in the matter of Careers Australia Group Limited (in liq); Ford, in the matter of Careers Australia Group Ltd (in liq) v Mansfield, Federal Court of Australia, 2022 (acting for director respondent in insolvency proceedings) (led by A Broadfoot KC).
  • Ford v Commissioner of Taxation, in the matter of Careers Australia Group Limited (in liq) (No 2) [2022] FCA 1151
  • Ford, in the matter of Careers Australia Group Ltd (in liq) v Mansfield [2022] FCA 173
    
• Keybridge Capital Ltd v Bell Potter Securities Ltd [2022] NSWSC 1022 (acting for plaintiff in three-day trial of breach of warranty of authority claim) (led by A Broadfoot KC).
  
• SAS (Vic) Pty Ltd v Urban Ecological Systems Ltd [2021] VCC 31 (acting for successful defendant in three-day trial of breach of contract claim at first instance) (unled). SAS (VIC) Pty Ltd v Urban Ecological Systems Ltd [2021] VSCA 335 (successfully defended judgment on appeal) (led by K O'Gorman).

Public law

• Davidson v Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate [2022] ACTSC 83 (acting for successful plaintiff in three-day trial, obtaining first declaration of a breach of human rights in the ACT) (unled).
  
• Wood v Secretary of the Dept of Transport [2021] NSWSC 1248; Wood v Secretary of the Dept of Transport (No 2) [2021] NSWSC 1461 (acting for successful plaintiff in three-day trial of procedural fairness and breach of employment contract claims) (led by S Prince SC).
  
• Gerner v Victoria [2020] HCA 48 (acting for plaintiff in constitutional law matter) (led by B Walker SC, M Wyles KC and R Pintos-Lopez).
  
• Armidale Regional Council v O'Connor [2020] NSWLEC 77 (acting for successful respondents in two-day trial, defending action to restrain threatened breach of Local Government Act 1993 (NSW)) (led by S Prince SC, F Berglund and T Wong).
  
• Pro bono migration matters: Williams v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2021] FCAFC 182 (unled); SZQKE v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2021] FCA 833 (led by S Prince SC).

Common law (other)

• Healy v Bird [2022] VSC 823 (successfully defended strike-out application in proceeding alleging novel duties against Catholic Diocese of Ballarat) (unled for hearing of application; led by L de Ferrari SC in matter generally).
  
• Jackson v Jones [2021] VCC 638 (acting for successful plaintiff in seven-day personal injury and battery trial, obtaining judgment and damages for the plaintiff) (led by P Hayes KC).
  
• Chen v Gibson Importing Co (Aust) Pty Ltd, Supreme Court of Victoria, 2020 (acting for plaintiff pro bono in ten-day personal injury trial, settled on the tenth day) (led by F McLeod SC and B Johnson).
  

Awards:

Daniel Pollak Readers’ Award for first-year pro bono advocacy (2021).

From 8 May 2020, liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation